How to Survive and Live to Tell About Your Home Addition, Part 3

The same mess continued on for the installing tile. All of these things were happening while I didn’t have a kitchen or a sink on the main floor.  Every room in the house looked like a bomb had gone off inside they were dirty and cluttery. I couldn’t imagine how long it would take me to get some order and cleanliness back into those rooms if we were ever going to finish, which was taking what felt like an interminable while longer than we had anticipated! This is when I began crying every day about what I had done to myself and my family. But, I continued to paint and paint and paint, and then my wrist began to hurt so much that I scheduled a doctor’s appt.  I used my other arm while waiting to go in, but that wrist began to hurt, also.  My diagnosis: tendonitis.  Prescription: don't use my hands more than absolutely necessary to let the swelling go down and take anti-inflammatory.  I took the anti-inflammatory, but couldn’t rest because everything else was waiting on me getting this done so we could FINISH.  My husband was still working around the clock (3 months later!) And we needed to get back to normal as soon as possible.  So I painted and iced, painted and iced, and painted and iced, until I was finished enough to install our flooring.  I finished the painting in the kitchen and so the tiling began.  When it was finished, it was everything I had hoped for. 

We got the carpeting installed, it looked beautiful! 

The wood floor was stunning! 

 I was so excited!  The cabinets were installed, the laundry sink, (my crown jewel!)  and other plumbing fixtures were attached and running, I was beginning to see the light!

How to Survive and Live to Tell About Your Home Addition, Part 2

Chaos, that’s what reigned at our house, and I’m a person that is greatly influenced by my surroundings.  I was trying to keep it together, but it continued to slip further and further into disorder.  Still, the work pressed on, the electrical and plumbing finished as much as they could, then insulation. I was overwhelmed, but we couldn’t go back, we were too far into this project! 

More work to be finished, the drywall, the mudding and taping, the huge mess of sanding the mudding.  We had fine dust covering every surface of our house and there was no getting rid of it! It was everywhere.  As soon as I could I began painting.  I had decided in the beginning that, because of our tight budget and I really wanted all new flooring throughout the main floor and in the basement, I would do all of the painting.  I knew this was a big job, I just didn’t know HOW big. 

I had been painting most of the summer anyway, because I was re-staining our kitchen cabinets to reuse so that we could save money.  I also had several pieces of furniture that needed updating and beautifying, so I was already somewhat burned out on the whole painting projects.    So, at the end of September, I began painting the primer on the walls, but I soon realized that painting primer takes a lot longer to paint than just regular paint! I painted and painted and painted! Oh the primer! It seemed to never end, the need for primer.  I had painted very few rooms from bare drywall and because they were relatively small, I hadn’t realized how much a bare drywall will suck up the primer and how much needed to be painted on the walls.  But I eventually got the walls painted in the kitchen…

How to Survive ….and Live to Tell About Your Home Addition, Part 1

Our 2-Story Center Hall Colonial Home - B.C. (Before Construction)

Two years ago, our home was feeling increasingly small, but because of the plummeting prices of homes we weren’t going to sell. Our home was nice.  We had only built about 10 years before and had tried to keep it in good shape.  sure we had some repairs to do and maybe some new flooring would be great, but all-in-all, our home was fine except for the size.  And with 4 kids, when it's feeling small, you REALLY feel it.  So, I had the brilliant idea that we should just add on to the one we had.  Oh, I had heard that adding on to your home was hard, but those were people who hadn’t built a house before.  And we had!  I was so much more prepared than them! (ha ha)  

B.C. Family Room

So, June 24^th, 2009, the fun began.   As our days were filled with the busyness and excitement of an excavator coming out to dig out the foundation, I could visualize the new rooms and their potential.  Then, we began the removal of the old siding and prepped for framers to begin as soon as the basement cement was poured.  It was all very exhilarating.  A little tiring maybe, but it would all be worth it!  My husband’s job began to be more demanding than earlier and he was working long days and a few long nights, but this was just temporary, and besides, I could certainly handle the house on my own!

B.C. Kitchen

Then, the framers began showing up at 6:30 blasting their rock music to begin their day.  But the walls went up fast and it was still exciting to see so much progress every day.  We joked about feeling like we were camping because the entire backside of our house was open to the elements.  Even finding out we had to install a new beam that wasn’t planned for didn’t break my stride, there are always unexpected surprises!

B.C. Living Room

As soon as the sheathing was up a windstorm came on suddenly, we hopped into action and nailed plywood to the open window areas. We were on top of it. My husband’s job continued to be demanding and would often consume his nights as well as his days. We began to wonder what we had done, but life had thrown us curveballs before, we were certainly tougher than that! We soon began the work that would take longer, but I knew what I was in for because we had built before so, no problem.  Ripping out the kitchen cabinets started my realization that I had bitten off more than I could chew. The mess soon overtook the entire home when the electrical work and plumbing began.  We were beginning to get tired of the constant chaos, but we still had hope...

Perfection

What if I lived in the Perfect House?
Country Living

“Perfection is pride stepping on your creativity” Robin Sue of Big Red Kitchen

I just love this quote.  I think this fits me to a “T”, I let pride step on my creativity and limit my own potential.  And I wonder if you have felt that, too.  That maybe you have felt you are insignificant in this world and that God can't use you because of your imperfections.  Or you can't be happy with your life or be a true friend until you attain a certain level of perfection. "I will have the neighbors over WHEN we get this and that done around the house." It is hard to admit, but many of us hide behind our imperfections. Those imperfections become an excuse for our inability to live out God's purpose in our life. And I have been working on overcoming that in my own life.  As I’ve been struggling about my feelings of inadequacy because I am not perfect and wanting to enter the Interior Design world, I have been intimidated by all the wonderful talent that is already at work and I have wondered, “What could I contribute that hasn’t already been done?”  And even more paralyzing is the thought, “How do I think I can compete with these people who are infinitely more talented than me?“  But that’s not why I am going into design.  I am not so much competing with them, as I’m looking to express myself and find my own style and creative voice and trying to fulfill that potential.  

With the Perfect Kitchen?
Southern Accents

I am starting a business to give another opportunity for someone who is looking for a designer that can help them express their taste and personality throughout their home. But I want to do everything right and not make any mistakes.  But isn’t that part of being human?  We’re not going to do everything perfectly.  Mortality is a messy business, and perfection is too cold, too impersonal.  We need some more humanity and connection with each other in our lives, not more perfection.

And the Perfect Living Room?  Would My Life be Perfect?

House Beautiful

Find Your Voice

I just went to the movie "The Kings Speech" with my husband last night and it really moved me.  It is a very wonderful story about friendship and courage and having confidence in ourselves.  I thought about how that applies to everyone, how we sometimes don't have confidence in ourselves and the importance of our contributions to the world.  So, I thought about what is my voice?  I have a few answers.  The most important is my belief in the Savior, Jesus Christ and my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  It is a very defining conviction of mine that has sustained me through most of my life and I am grateful for the support this gives me to strive to be worthy of His love and grace.  Another declaration is the importance of family.  I have been very blessed to be surrounded by a wonderful family who loves and supports me.  My parents and brother and sisters are all very dear to me.  My husband is a very kind and patient and loving man who's love and strength has inspired me to be a better person every day that I have known him.  And of course, my children are a constant blessing to me.  Their intelligence, talents and love continues to humble me to be honored with being their mom. 
The last purpose of my voice is the purpose of this blog. To help others find the confidence to decorate their homes especially those who think that this requires lots of money.  I do not believe a beautiful home takes a lot of money. In fact, I believe that having a lot of money sometimes lulls us into settling for what is available or what others tell us is beautiful, but having little to no money can free us to express ourselves more fully.  I am of the opinion that expressing ourselves is so important. There are many ways we can do that, but I am especially interested in how we can "find our voice" in our home environment and have the courage to express it through our individuality and creativity.

Why create another blog?

With all the number of blogs available, it would be easy to just spend my time jumping from blog to blog reading the clever and stimulating posts others are already creating. But I feel the need express myself, especially concerning my passion for decorating and design.
Charles Schultz said, "Decorate your home. It gives the illusion that your life is more interesting than it really is." A very funny quote, especially because we all tend to believe it. Often, we assume that our life is not very exciting or interesting.
But I am reminded of an episode that Oprah did several years ago, when a reporter was invited on who insisted that everyone has a story and not just a regular story, but an interesting one. They then set up a board where darts were thrown at some balloons that each held a number that corresponded with an audience members numbers. They chose three audience members that way and he did a follow up story with them and it was really fun and interesting to hear the different life events that had shaped them.
That's what I feel should happen every time when building,designing and decorating a home. We need to tell our stories, not only for the people who visit occasionally, but especially for those who live there, so that we can all know that we are valuable and our voice is important.